In the tradition of mental development, the concern is to demonstrate integration, the union between meditation, and daily experience--to make them flow into each other. This book is full of techniques whereby we can make this happen by changing the way we view ourselves and the world. by the contributor to the Visions series.

The Four Essential Buddhist Commentaries provided by His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama are on The Thirty Seven Bodhisattva Practices by Thogmed Zangpo; Three Principal Paths by Je Tsong-Khapa, The Eight Verses on the Training of the Mind by Geshe Langri Thangpa and The Song of Four Mindfulnesses by Seventh Dalai Lama.

In this work, Bokar Rinpoche gives us a clear presentation of the Bodhisattva vow, its nature, and its implications. We learn of aspiring and realizing Bodhicitta (mind of awakening) and of the various stages of the Bodhisattvas and their activity. Bokar Rinpoche explains how to take the vow, the commitments, the precepts, and how to purify ourselves if we break the Bodhisattva vow.

Bodhisattvas, the great beings of Mahayana Buddhism, are those who have generated bodhicitta, resolving to gain enlightenment in order to bring about lasting happiness for all living beings. This volume of oral teachings by Geshe Sonam Rinchen explains the altruistic wish to attain enlightenment and the precepts of training which accompany it. Implementing the resolve to gain enlightenment for the sake of all living creatures involves engaging in the marvelous activities of Bodhisattvas.

"The reason someone who take the Bodhisattva Vow is fit to be called a Bodhisattva is that simply taking the vow involves a tremendous amount of courage. You are accepting as your own individual responsibility the welfare and the eventual awakening of an inconceivable, possibly infinite, number of beings."

Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas was written to explain how the practice of the stages of yogic deeds enables those with a Mahayana motivation to attain Buddhahood. Both Nagarjuna and Aryadeva urge those who want to understand reality to induce direct experience of ultimate truth through philosophic enquiry and reasoning. Aryadeva's text is more than commentary on Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way, for it explains the extensive paths associated with conventional truths. The first half of the text focuses on the development of merit by showing how to transform disturbing attitudes and master the practices of bodhisattvas. The second half explains the nature of emptiness. Gyeltsap's commentary on Aryadeva's text takes the form of a lively dialogue. In addition, Geshe Sonam Rinchen, instructor for the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, has provided a commentary to the section on bodhisattva paths elucidating their relevance for contemporary life.

"Readers who put the advice this book contains into practice may indeed transform their minds and achieve a sense of inner peace, the key to greater peace and happiness within and in the world at large." --The Dalai Lama

All of us have attitudes. Some of them accord with reality and serve us well throughout the course of our lives. Others are out of alignment with reality, and cause us problems. Tibetan Buddhist practice isn't just sitting in silent meditation, it's developing fresh attitudes that align our minds with reality. Attitudes need adjusting, just like a spinal column that has been knocked out of alignment. B. Alan Wallace explains a fundamental type of Buddhist mental training called lojong, which can literally be translated as attitudinal training. It is designed to shift our attitudes so that our minds become pure well-springs of joy instead of murky pools of problems, anxieties, fleeting pleasures, hopes and frustrations.

ENLIGHTENED COURAGE: An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Trainingby H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, translated by The Padmakara Translation Group

Highly respected by thousands of students throughout the world, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was one of the foremost poets, scholars, philosophers and meditation masters. Here he speaks frankly from his heart, drawing on his own life-long experience.

Condensing the compassionate path to Buddhahood into practical instructions that use the circumstances of everyday life, Rinpoche presents the Seven Point Mind Training--the very core of the entire Tibetan Buddhist practice.

In this society with its hurly-burly pace demanding of our time, it is ever so easy to let life slip by. The process of simply existing is not necessarily meaningful. And yet, there is an unlimited potential for meaning and value in this human existence. The Seven-Point Mind Training is one eminently practical way of tapping into that meaning.

TRANSFORMING ADVERSITY INTO JOY AND COURAGE: An Explanation of the Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvasby Geshe Jampa Tegchok, edited by Thubten Chodron

A practical and inspiring guide for developing our ability to be happy and benefit others, this commentary on The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas by Gyalsay Togme Sangpo is studied by followers of all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The root text gives, in thirty-seven short verses, the essential practices leading to enlightenment. Gyalsay Togme Sangpo (1295-1369) was renowned as a bodhisattva in Tibet and revered for living according to the bodhisattva ideals and practices that he taught. He inspired not only his direct disciples but also generations of practitioners up to the present day.